A color filter of a color liquid crystal display (LCD) is fabricated by the so-called photolithography technology in which a rectangular substrate made of glass is coated with color resists of four colors (red, green, blue, and black), and is exposed and developed.
In the photolithography process of the color filter, coating, exposing and developing are performed for each of the color resists. More specifically, for example, a substrate after being scrubbed is coated with a red color resist, thereafter the red color resist is exposed and is sequentially developed. Next, the substrate after being scrubbed is coated with a green color resist, thereafter the green color resist is exposed and is sequentially developed. Then, similar processes are performed with respect to blue and black.
Accordingly, processing units for scrubbing, coating, exposing and developing are required for processing of each color, the processing units for scrubbing, coating, exposing and developing are continuously arranged, and processes are sequentially performed from upstream to downstream.
However, when one color filter is coated with a plurality of color resists by the coating and developing system as described above, processing units for scrubbing, coating, exposing and developing are required to provide for each of the colors. Moreover, a plurality of groups of processing units for scrubbing, coating, exposing and developing in correspondence with the number of colors must be provided. Therefore, there is a problem in the coating and developing system as described above in that the configuration of the apparatus becomes huge in size, which causes an increase in space occupied in a clean room, and also an increase in manufacturing cost.
The present invention is made in view of the above circumstances. An object of the present invention is to provide a coating and developing method and an apparatus therefor in which reduction in size of apparatus and space savings can be achieved, and manufacturing cost can also be reduced in coating and developing a color filter and the like. Another object is to provide a coating and developing method and an apparatus therefor in which yields of products can be improved.